Brassiere



B. MASSTAB Nov. 15, 1955 ill Lil.

INVENTOR. BENJAMIN MAS-STAB l-7T TORNE Y United States Patent BRASSIERE Benjamin Masstab, Brooklyn, N. Y., assignor to Ethel Masstab, Rye, N. Y.

Application April 8, 1952, Serial No. 281,169

1 Claim. (Cl. 2-42) This invention relates to brassieres.

It is an object of my invention to provide an improved self-adjusting brassiere, that is to say, a brassiere which will accommodate itself, within reasonable limits, to different shapes and sizes of busts.

It is another object of my invention to provide a brassiere of the character described which despite its selfadjusting feature Will carry out efiiciently the necessary brassiere functions of molding and control.

It is another object of my invention to provide a brassiere of the character described which rounds the inner sides of the breasts in a particularly graceful manner.

It is an additional object of my invention to provide a brassiere of the character described which is tridimensionally self-adjusting, i. e., which will accommodate itself in breadth, height and projection to the bust of a wearer.

Other objects of my invention will in part be obvious and in part will be pointed out hereinafter.

My invention accordingly consists in the features of construction, combinations of elements and arrangements of parts which will be exemplified in the device hereinafter described and of which the scope of application Will be indicated in the appended claim.

In the accompanying drawings in which is shown one of the various possible embodiments of my invention,

Fig. 1 is a front view of a lay figure wearing a brassiere U constructed in accordance with my invention;

Fig. 2 is a side view of the brassiere;

Fig. 3 is an inner fragmentary view of the brassiere;

Fig. 4 is an enlarged sectional view through one of the bust cups of the brassiere, the same being taken substantially along the line 4-4 of Fig. 1; and

Fig. 5 is a plan view of the two fabric panels from which a bust cup is fabricated.

Referring now in detail to the drawings, the reference numeral 10 denotes a brassiere whose construction incorporates the present invention. The particular novelty of the brassiere resides in the structure of its two bust cups 12, 14. Inasmuch as these cups are mirror images of one another, the parts of only one cup 12 will be described in detail and the like parts of the other cup 14 will be denoted by the same reference numerals primed.

The bust cup 12 is made from two panels 16, 18 of uni-directionally resilient cloth of the type commonly known as one-way stretch, this comprising by way of example, an inelastic warp and an elastic woof.

The panel 16 includes three sections which jointly form a single piece. These sections consist of a section 20 which constitutes the outer top section of the bust cup, a section 22 which constitutes the outer bottom section of the bust cup, and a section 24 which constitutes the side panel of the brassiere connected to the bust cup. The sole direction of elasticity of the panel 16 is indicated by the arrows A (see Fig. 5). This direction is horizontal, that is to say all parts of said panel, e. g. the bottom edge 26, which are not distorted in fabrication of the bust cup will be uni-directionally resilient horizontally when the brassiere is donned.

The panel 18 includes two sections which jointly form a single piece. These sections consist of a section 28 which constitutes the inner top section of the bust cup 12 and a section 30 which constitutes the inner bottom section of said bust cup. The sole direction of elasticity of the panel 18 is indicated by the arrows B. This direction is vertical, that is to say all parts of said panel, e. g. the section 28, which are not distorted in fabrication of the bust cup will be uni-directionally resilient vertically when the brassiere is donned.

The sections 20, 22, 28 and 30 are individually so shaped in a manner Well known to the art that when adjacent edges are brought into juxtaposition and sewn together, the sections mutually will form a conical bust cup. The specific size and contour of each of the sections may be varied in accordance With current styles and the average shape of busts which the brassiere is to accommodate, wherefore it will be understood that the particular pattern illustrated herein is merely exempletive as to size and shape.

The sum of the apex angles 32, 34, 36, 38 of the several sections 20, 22, 28, 30, respectively, is less than 360 in order for the finished bust cup to be of conical shape. However, these angles are not necessarily alike. Indeed, I prefer to have the apex angle 36 substantially a right angle, the apex angle 38 about 70, the apex angle 34 about 60 and the apex angle 20 about 70.

In further pursuance of my invention the several sections 20, 22, 34, 38 are so laid out on the panels 16, 18 that in the finished bust cup the direction of resilience of each of the sections is as indicated in Figs. 1 and 3, that is to say, in a finished bust cup embodying my invention the outer top section 20 is uni-directionally resilient radially, i. e. toward and away from the apex of the bust cup. The outer bottom section 22 is uni-directionally resilient horizontally. The inner top section 28 is uni-directionally resilient vertically and the inner bottom section 30 is uni-directionally resilient circumferentially of the bust cup. These several directions of resilience are indicated by the arrows at, b, c, d, in Figs. 1

and 3.

It is in order to secure such orientation of the direction of resiliency of the ditTerent sections that said sections are cut from two pieces of fabric 16, 18 whose axes of resilience are, as indicated by the arrows A, B, horizontal and vertical, respectively. For the same reason the sections are angularly displaced from one another as initially cut out, the same being illustrated in Fig. 5.

For instance, the section 22 is laid out on a piece of fabric 16 so that the direction of resilience A is parallel to the upper edge 40 of said section. Likewise the section 20 is located so that its lower edge 42 is at an angle to the edge 40 and said edges meet at the outer side of the bust cup. Thus although the section 20 is cut from a piece of fabric which is uni-directionally resilient horizontally, in the finished bust cup the direction of resilience of said section 20 is radial. It will be observed that the lower edge 42 and inner vertical edge 44 of the section 28 define an inner angle 32 which is approximately bisected by the direction of resilience A of the panel 16.

The sections 28, 30 are laid out on the panel 18 pursuant to the same governing principle. Thus, the section 28 is arranged with its inner vertical edge 46 parallel to the direction of resilience B and its horizontal edge 48 perpendicular to said direction. The section 30 is laid out with its horizontal edge 50 and its inner vertical edge 52 defining an inner angle 38, the bisector of which is substantially perpendicular to the direction of resilience B of the panel 18.

It now will be appreciated that when the inner vertical edges 44, 46 are sewn together, the two horizontal edges 48, 50 are sewn together, the inner vertical edge 52 is sewn to the inner vertical edge 54 of the section 22 and the two horizontal edges 40, 42 are sewn together, the direction of resilience of the section 21 will be radial, the direction of resilience of the section 22 will be horizontal, the direction of the resilience of the section 28 will be vertical and the direction of resilience of the section 30 will be circumferential.

The foregoing relative arrangement of the sections of each of the panels requires the presence of darts 56, 58 joining the sections 20, 22 and 28, 30 respectively. However, this is necessary in any event in order to join said sections so as to impart the requisite cone shape to the bust cup so that the shaping of the panels cooperates with the direction of resilience of the pieces 16, 18 to locate the individual resilient axes of the several sections in proper orientation pursuant to my invention.

The inner side edges of the bust cups are joined to one another by a central cusped panel 60 fabricated from elastic cloth which is uni-directionally vertically resilient.

The brassiere includes the usual shoulder straps 62 extending from. the center top of each bust cup to the upper back edge of the brassiere.

I have found that a brassiere constructed in accordance with my invention automatically accommodates itself to various sizes and shapes of busts within a reasonable range. If, for example, the bust has a greater base circumference than the average bust for which the brassiere was designed, the section 30 will yield substantially and the sections 28 and 22 will yield to a lesser degree to accommodate the larger circumference. If the bust projects further from the rib cage than the average bust for which the brassiere was designed, the section 20 will yield substantially and the sections 22, 28 will yield to a lesser degree.

By having the section 22 uni-directionally resilient hori- 'zontally and the section 30 uni-directionally resilient circumferentially, but neither bottom section uni-directionally resilient vertically, the brassiere tends to yield less to a sagging bust and therefore affords better uplift than would normally be expected of a resilient bust cup. Conversely the vertical resilience of the section 28 tends to make the upper part of the molded bust fuller. Moreover, by having the section 30 cireumferentially resilient and the section 28 vertically resilient, as well as by having these two sections joined integrally to one another at the inner side edge of the bust cup, the inner edge of a breast accommodated Within the cup is uniformly rounded without the break conventionally present in an ordinary bust cup consisting of quarter sections.

A further advantage of a brassiere constructed in accordance with my invention is that when the wearer raises either or both arms the brassiere will not ride up on the bust to expose the underside thereof as is the case with a conventional brassiere. Due to the vertical resilience of the panel 28 and the radial resilience of the panel 20 an upward pull on a shoulder strap, consequent upon raising a wearers arm, simply will stretch the sections 20, 23 upwardly but will not pull up the bust cup as a whole.

It thus will be seen that l have provided a device which achieves all the objects of my invention and is Well adapted to meet the conditions of practical use.

As various possible embodiments might be made of the above invention, and as various changes might be made in the embodiment above set forth, it is to be understood that all matter herein described, or shown in the accompanying drawings, is to be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

Having thus described my invention, I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent:

In a brassiere, a dome-shaped bust cup including four quadrant sections which are joined by seams extending radially away from a common point at the apex of the bust cup, said sections constituting an outer top section which is uni-directionally resilient radially, an outer bottom section which is uni-directionally resilient horizontally, an inner top section which is uni-directionally resilient vertically, and an inner bottom section which is uni-directionally resilient cireumferentially.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,211,549 Semons Aug. 13, 1940 2,390,465 Russo Dec. 4, 1945 2,560,706 Spetalnik July 17, 1951 2,562,582 Schaumer July 31, 1951 2,651,779 Schaumer Sept. 15, 1953 FOREIGN PATENTS 403,418 Great Britain Dec. 13, 1933 969,672 France May 24, 1950 

